Wellness, beauty … and robots? Here’s how machines are changing the field in Greater Boston

These robots and AI are assisting humans, not taking over for them, according to the humans behind them.
When you walk into the Forever Young Spa in Back Bay, the first thing you notice is the blue massage table with robotic arms positioned on each side.
At the Smart SKN lab, there are no bottles of skincare products on the shelves. Instead, all the products remain hidden inside a gigantic compartment that houses a robotic arm ready to create custom skincare formulations.
And soon, the Braintree and Everett Ulta Beauty stores will each have a robotic machine offering full manicures.
Boston has long been home to several robot and AI tech companies, but the public is getting the chance to see those robots and AI in action more and more as the technology expands into beauty and self-care industries.
As public concern grows about AI taking over humans’ jobs, the humans at Smart SKN lab, Forever Young Spa, and 10Beauty say they’re emphasizing the original intended purpose of robots and AI: to assist humans.
AI usage is not an issue for Smart SKN’s CEO Val Neicu, “if it can improve our health and alleviate some of [society’s] overconsumption and over-production.”
When it comes to 10Beauty’s manicure machines, says co-CEO Alex Shashou, they’re not intended to replace human manicurists. “It’s more [the way] we’re going to grow the market of people who love manicures,” he said.
Founder of Forever Young Spa Derrick Young said it’s important that the technology behind robots and AI is shared as widely as possible. “If we only let a few people … develop and control the robots, [the robot] still won’t do its own thing, but it will have the mind of those few people. And that’s why everybody needs to be a part of this societal effort,” he said.
Mixing it up at Smart SKN
Utilizing a scope, survey, and AI, the Smart SKN lab near Government Center is creating customized Korean skincare products for its clients.
By creating skincare specifically for each client, Val Neicu said, “This is something that is guaranteed to work” with 25,000 possible formulations. “Korean skincare is prevention over cure, always,” she said.
First, the Muilli scope is placed on the client’s cheeks, forehead, chin, and nose to take magnified pictures and to determine moisture levels of each area. Then, the client fills out a survey about their skin type and skincare routine.
The data from the scope reading and the survey are inputted into the skincare robot, known as Bali.
Positioned inside a giant square compartment, Bali is a mechanical arm that picks up and moves around the skincare bottles and creates each skincare product in two to four minutes. The machine can create a lotion, essence serum, or ampoule for the client, starting at $75 each.
In addition to its formulation abilities, Bali has its own air conditioning system, a series of IV-bags for each ingredient, and even prints labels for the skincare bottles.
To make one product with several ingredients, the robot has “learned how to group them together to get the most benefit out of them,” Neicu said. Additionally, each ingredient has its own fact page on the Smart SKN website.
Skin care routines and information about the latest products are consistently trending online. As a result, people tend to purchase trending skincare products “without knowing if it’s the best option for them” and 70% of people experience skin sensitivity, which is “borderline [an epidemic],” Neicu said.
While traditional skincare companies mass produce products that line shelves at various stories, each Smart SKNproduct is made when the client places the order or visits the lab. Therefore, Smart SKN eliminates the waste created by mass-produced products that go unsold or end up in the landfill after purchase, Neicu said.
“From a manufacturing standpoint, this is a gamechanger,” because only one bag and up to three boxes, labels, and bottles are used per client, Neicu said.
The Smart SKN robots were developed in Asia in 2024, arrived in the U.S. at the end of 2024, and began skincare formulation in January.
In addition to the robot in Boston, there are two skincare robots in Beverly that manufacture products using skin readings done by dermatologists with the Muilli scope. There is also a robot in a medical spa in Minnesota and one in LA for demonstrations, Neicu said.
A robot works on backs in Back Bay
Forever Young Spa in Back Bay is home to Boston’s first massage robot, the Aescape.
The Aescape is a royal blue massage table with two heated robotic arms that perform the massage. Beneath the headrest, there is a control panel so the client can adjust the pressure level of the robotic arms, play music, pause the session, and skip massage areas.
While an Aescape machine can be found at an Equinox Fitness Club location in Boston, Forever Young’s machine is the first publicly accessible automatic massage machine in the Hub. The spa opened in June and acquired the massage robot the same month after the spa’s founder, Derrick Young, tried the machine in Santa Barbara earlier this year.
“We’ve been hearing a lot of people [saying], ‘I never get massages because I don’t like being undressed in front of people. I don’t like people touching me,’ so this is a great alternative,” said Young. The demographic of Aescape clients at Forever Young ranges from Gen Z and Millennials through Baby Boomers and beyond, whether due to preferring a humanless interaction, curiosity, or overall preference.
As the song “Forever Young” plays, clients are welcomed into the spa with a complimentary beverage before heading into the treatment room to change into the spandex shirt and leggings that are compatible with the robot.
Then, four cameras mounted about the massage table take a 3D scan of the client’s body to determine where to place the robot arms.
Clients can “favorite” parts of the massage and the robot will save it to their account profile so the information is available at any Aescape location and one day can be used for a customizable massage.
It may not feel exactly like a human masseuse, but “it’s pretty comparable and it’s pretty amazing,” Young said. Currently, the Aescape only massages the backside of the body from the shoulders to the calves, with potential for the robot to eventually tackle more body parts and even the front side of the body.
Unlike massages conducted by a real massage therapist, the Aescape offers session lengths from 15 minutes to an hour with a rate of approximately $25 per 15 minutes or $105 for a full hour. A regular massage in Back Bay averages between $175 to $200, according to Young.
“There is a significant shortage of massage therapists around the country right now,” Young said. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that there will be nearly 25,000 annual job openings for massage therapists between 2024 and 2034 as the demand for wellness treatments increases.
He continued, “While I don’t think this stands a chance at replacing massage therapists, I do think it helps out the industry.”
10Beauty promises to nail robot manicures
10Beauty is set to launch the world’s first machine offering a full manicure at the Ulta Beauty in Everett on Oct. 12, with the one at the Braintree location coming on line on Oct. 19. Bookings for the machines kicked off this week.
“This is the first manicure machine, but it is, in many ways, the first consumer robot in the world that physically interacts with a human [with] sub-millimeter precision at a consumer price point,” said Alex Shashou.
In February, 10Beauty acquired a company that sold machines that only painted nails, leaving the filing, shaping, and top coat responsibility to the customer. Those machines, made by Clockwork, could be found all over the country, including in the lobby of an office building on High Street in Boston.
The 10Beauty machines, however, will be able to remove nail polish, file nails with a glass file, buff and soften cuticles, clean off debris, and paint on nail polish and a top coat.
The 10Beauty machines utilize seven cameras and computer vision AI to analyze the client’s nails, one hand at a time, and determine the placement of the file and polishes. Each client chooses a color in a single-use pod containing the manicure instruments.
“The reason we exist is people love a manicure … but getting a manicure has become a chore today … You have inconsistent results across manicurists,” Shashou said.
Now, the new machines will be found in stores, including Ulta and Nordstrom, and other businesses across the globe. 10Beauty pre-sold 850 machines two years ago, before the machine’s technology was even finished. The company has not offered any other machines since the initial presale, but Shashou says the demand from nail salons and other businesses floods his inbox every month.
“We offer the ability for any business to now offer manicures at a model that is much more affordable,” said Shashou.
While Clockwork’s very basic manicures cost $10, the 10Beauty manicure cost will be determined by the business that owns the machine. The Everett Ulta location will charge $30 for the full service manicure and each machine can perform 10 manicures per day, according to Shashou.
The machines were developed over six years by a team of 50 engineers, said Shashou. However, technological mishaps may still occur if the machine has not yet encountered a client’s nail type. To ensure quality, each 10Beauty machine will be paired with a professional manicurist during its initial launch.
While 10Beauty will only temporarily employ professional manicurists to pair with the robots, Shashou said the machines will not replace manicurists, but they will widen the market surrounding and the demand for manicures.
Through piloting the machines, 10Beauty found that 40% of its customers don’t traditionally go to a nail salon for a manicure, said Shashou.
“If we teach them how much they actually love a good manicure, they’re going to become manicure customers, which then, in turn, makes them salon customers,” Shashou said, comparing market growth at cafes and gyms caused by at-home coffee machines and Pelotons.